Destined Love
by Himahko Fyen
Summary: Hinamori Amu met the people she met mostly because she had shugo charas. So what if shugo charas never existed in this world? Then Amu has kept her facade on longer than she should have.
1. Marriage?

**Hello! Fyen is here once again, writing stories! x] Sorry for this first really short chappie, I'm kinda just experimenting with this story plot right now since I don't really know how it'll turn out but it's been stuck in my head for a while so I had to write it out! _ And if I decide to continue this story, I must warn you that most of the chapters are probably going to be shorter than those that I have written in my previous stories. u_u Okay, enough with my yapping. Just read. ;]**

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"What?!" Amu blurted out in disbelief at the dinner table one day with her parents and Ami, her younger sister who is now fifteen years old. She couldn't believe what her parents had just told her. _Literally._ "Wh-What do you mean there's _someone_ I'm _already_ going to get married with?! You both _arranged_ a marriage for me without even _asking _me?!"

"Amu-chan," her mother spoke calmly, "You're old enough now to get married and you should get a husband as quickly as possible."

"But I'm only twenty-one right now! What is there to hurry about? I'm still in college and haven't even got to get my own place to live in yet!"

"That's because you _need_ support from someone, Amu. And I figured, maybe you should get married, it could help you. I'm just worried for you, Amu," her mother argued back.

Amu also refused to back down, "But at least let me marry someone I know or actually _like_!"

"But you've never even dated _one _boy before! That's why I'm worried for you!"

"That's because...!" Amu was speechless now. Her mother was right, but that was because there was no one that she ever found the least bit of interest in. Well, maybe she would think some boys actually were cute from time to time, but that was totally different from what she thought was _love._ There simply was no one that was perfect with her at this time, and the person that her parents had already chosen for her to marry definitely would be disappointing to her anyways.

Amu noticed her father had stayed quiet through the whole arguement between her and her mother. She turned to her father with a pleading look. "Papa..."

"Amu,... your mother's right. I have trust in this man that you're going to marry will take good care of you," he replied but his eyes shown that maybe he was unsure. Amu's heart drooped even more. How could he say that? She had always thought that her father would always want her to stay with them as long as she could. She felt as if her parents didn't want her company anymore. But she wasn't a child anymore either.

Amu couldn't take any of this anymore. She stood up from the table, not looking at any of her parents, not even Ami who looked at her sympathetically, not able to do anything about it. "Well, thanks for the food," she muttered before running up the stairs to her room, slamming the door behind her and flopping herself on the bed, feeling more miserable than ever.

How could they do this to her? Don't they know that arranged marriages is something people never do anymore nowadays? Amu did know that one way to get out of this would be to run away somewhere far or threaten to kill herself. She shivered at the thought of committing suicide. No, she could never muster up enough courage to do _that._ And if she ran away, where would she go? What would she do? She still needs to graduate from college. There was no way Amu could survive on her own. She couldn't even cook anything good for anyone or herself, for that matter, to eat.

She rolled onto her back and hugged a pillow close to her to chest. '_Even marrying Ikuto is better than this someone I don't even know,'_ she admitted grudgingly to herself, remembering about the navy blue-haired boy that kept flirting with her whenever she would walk back home from school way back when she was still a fifth grader. He still did that now, just to annoy her and kept telling everyone else that he was her boyfriend.

Amu got even more frustrated thinking about this stupid, annoying cat. Whenever she saw him, he always reminded her of a sneaky, sly cat. How did she even got to thinking about him anyways? He was definitely not her type and always pissed her off. Maybe it would be okay to marry this unknown person... as long as it isn't a _real _marriage. Suddenly, an idea started brewing in Amu's mind and she started smiling to herself as she thought of something brilliant.

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**Okiez! Now if you wanna tell me what you think, I highly suggest that you use the review button. u_u**


	2. Little Talk

**Okay, I'm _still _kind of experimenting with this but it seems that most of you might like it so I guess I'll be continuing. Btw, this chapter... doesn't have so much action. 0.0 Maybe, you'll like the next chaper better? **

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_Yawn._ Amu slowly stretched as she got out from bed, realizing that it was Saturday already. As she made her way downstairs for breakfast, she saw her mother there with the breakfast done already. Only Ami and Papa had to come to eat now.

"Ohayo, Amu-chan," her mother greeted with a warm smile.

Amu, who was a bit surprised for some reason, greeted back with the same words and sat down to eat. She was trying to forget about what happened the day before. The arguement about her arranged marriage.

Suddenly her mother said her name again, "Amu-chan,... I want you to get yourself prepared today."

The pink-haired, young woman looked up at her mother with curiosity. '_She wouldn't be telling me that I'll be getting married today, would she?' _she wondered. "Why?" Amu finally asked.

Her mother took a deep breath as if what she was about to tell her daughter might make her explode. "Well,... your fiance is going to visit you today and get to know you a little bit more before you get married."

It suddenly hit Amu that she never even asked for the name of this 'fiance' of hers. She also felt a little angry and nervous. Instead of bursting with anger and saying what was on her mind at the moment, _'What do you mean 'get to know you a little more before you get married?!' You're making me get married next week!' _She decided to stay calm and asked, "Who is it, Mama?" Amu had to meet this person first and talk to him anyways if she wanted her plan to work.

Her mother raised an eyebrow as if expecting a totally different reaction but smiled a bit, thinking that Amu might have changed her mind about this whole 'stranger marrying stranger' thing and replied, "His name is Tadase Hotori. I've met him before along with your father and we both think he's a great gentleman."

The punk girl just gaped at her mother. "_What _did you say? _Tadase Hotori?!_" She couldn't believe that her parents had set her up with _him_! It's a good thing she had a plan before she would be forced to meet and talk with this guy and eventually, _marry _him though.

"Um... yeah. Is there something wrong?" her mother asked, sounding a little worried.

"He went to my schools in elementary and middle school! And he even goes to my college!"

"Oh good! That means, you must've already known him and talked to him already!"

"W-Well,... sure, but... he's not my type," Amu replied, stubborn as usual. This wasn't entirely true anyways. You could actually say that Amu has _never_ talked to him before, for the last time she ever talked to the princely boy, it was when she was in fifth grade. And she wasn't really nice either.

_Flashback_

_Amu was a new student at Seiyo Academy (Elementary)._ _She was worried about how she wouldn't be able to fit in with everyone just like before at her old school. She would always stick out with this facade that she had a spicy and cool character when really, she was a nervous wreck and was always a klutz. She could never reveal her true self though, it was way too hard. So eventually, she ended up having this facade up in front of everyone at school ever since._

_Hinamori Amu had to hurry to class now. But she had lost one of her x-clips that had always been a part of her style. It was her trademark thing and it made herself have a character. Sometimes, she thought she would look goofy without it. She sighed and finally decided to forget about it, starting to head towards class. _

_Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder, stopping her. She turned around, seeing the ruby red eyes of a real prince staring back at her. 'Huh? I-Isn't he one of those council members here? King's chair wasn't it?' she thought. But that wasn't all she thought about at the moment. She also thought he was... cute. But wait, what's that in his hand?_

_"Um... Is this--?" the boy started to ask, but the pinkette pushed his hand off her shoulder rudely._

_"Don't just come up and talk to me like we're best buddies, shorty," she said to him with an icy tone, annoyance clearly shown on her face._

_The boy was taken back by her sudden unwelcoming reaction and didn't know what to say. However, Amu was also aware of what she just said and everyone gasped and whispered to each other about what she just said to the most popular boy in Seiyo Academy. 'Oh why did I have to say that?!' she thought gloomily to herself. Oh well, might as well just keep up the act._

_She looked at the boy's hand and stuck one of her hands out expectantly, looking like she didn't care about what this boy thought about her but the thing that was in his hand. "Well?" she probed. "Are you gonna give my clip back or not?"_

_"Oh, s-sorry..." the boy muttered, still in a bit of a shock and returned Amu's clip to her hand. She quickly turned and walked away without saying anything, as if she hadn't heard the boy's apology. She did kind of regret it though... or so she thought._

_End of Flashback_

Amu's mother smiled at her and said, "Oh, I think he's just perfect for you."

"Yeah right, he's too... 'nice' for my taste," Amu huffed.

Her mother frowned, "You're still going to meet him today, Amu-chan. And after that, I think you'll get to know him pretty well and eventually start to like him like your husband."

Amu made a face at that notion. She normally isn't this way, but over the years, her cool and spicy fake character has taken over and slowly became a real part of Amu. "Whatever," she retorted.

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A little later in the day, the doorbell of the Hinamori's house finally rang. Amu's heart nearly jumped out of her chest as if she never heard the sound of a doorbell before in all her life. She quickly jumped up from her bed, looking in her mirror, making sure that her hair didn't look messy. Not that she wanted to look good for her "future husband" anyways. Her mother had made her try to look nicer than usual before Hotori-kun came.

"Amu-chan! Will you go get the door, I'm busy!" her mom called from the kitchen.

Amu sighed heavily, dragging herself to the front of their door and slowly opened it. Although she was expecting Hotori Tadase, she was surprised anyways. She never did pay much attention to him later on in her years of school after that little encounter back then, but now she just noticed how marvelous and gorgeous he looked as a full-grown man. He took her breath away. He was wearing a plain white buttoned shirt, wearing black pants. Almost like a businessman except without his jacket and tie. He smiled at her but it seemed like he was trying to _crack_ a smile instead.

Amu finally realized that he was still standing outside and gave him an incredulous look. "Well? Are you going to come in or not?" she said with that same icy voice that Tadase remembered he had heard about nine years ago.

He sweatdropped and laughed kind of nervously before entering the house, "Oh, sorry." As he followed Amu Hinamori into her living room, he had this sickening feeling. He had never wanted to be here in the first place or _wanted_ to marry this girl that seemed to dislike him so much. But it was his parents order, and he was an obedient child so he always did what he had to do. He didn't understand it himself why his parents, especially his mother, wanted him to get married so quickly. Either way, when his parents had first mentioned it, Tadase was okay with it, for he never felt love for another girl in his life before and probably won't ever. Even though so many girls had confessed their love to him, he hasn't ever dated one single girl through his teenage years. So maybe it does makes sense for his parents to worry. He was their only son after all.

Finally, Amu told Tadase that he could sit at the couch that she was sitting on, beside her. It was a pretty awkward moment.

"Um, hey," Amu started.

Tadase looked at her, signaling that he was listening.

"About this arranged marriage thing...**.** Are you okay with us _not _getting married?" she asked straight out. Just like that.

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**Well... I'm too lazy to say anything right now. -_-||| So all I can think of saying is "Thanks for reading!" and "Bai bai!" ^^**


	3. Chosen Rings

**Gahhhh... I hope most of you are already used to my usual late updating. -_-||| Anyways, this story's really just about Amu's and Tadase's feelings/emotions changing and what they both go through so don't be expecting any certain "mature" scenes okay? Just have to make that clear! And I know that I don't do those things where you chat with Shugo Charas so much anymore... I'm just really lazy. ^^;**

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_'Are you okay with us _not _getting married?' _Amuhad said to Tadase. Tadase just sat there and blinked thoughtfully.

'_Does she really hate me that much to request that I go against my parents' desire and not marry her just like that?' _he thought to himself as he studied Amu's face carefully, as if searching for some kind of other reason for this. Not that he actually cared about this or anything, it's just... he's never met a girl like her before that would readily reject him anytime like this.

Finally, he spoke up, "I'd be fine with it, but will both of our parents be fine with it?"

Amu's eyes lightened with relief. "Really? You're really fine with it?" she asked just to make sure, ignoring the young man's question for a brief moment. Tadase gave a slow nod and she continued, "They definitely won't be fine with it, for some reason. But when the wedding day comes, we won't really get married. We'll just act like it's real just for our parents."

Tadase stayed silent, pondering over this before finally questioning, "So... what you're saying is, we'll just be husband and wife on the outside, and, for real, we have nothing to do with each other?"

Amu nodded in reply, eagerly. "And we'll both have the title of being married for a while, like maybe a few months or so and then we can divorce after that because of some reason. I mean, our parents can't stop us if we really don't _want _to be with each other anymore. Right?"

"But, why wait until after the fake marriage for that? Couldn't we just do something right now to convince them that we can't marry each other?" Tadase pointed out.

Amu shook her head, "No, that'd be too obvious then. My parents already know how much I don't want to get married yet. And for us to get in a fight already is a little extreme right now, I don't even think you could even act like you're angry."

Tadase raised an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

"You just seem too happy all the time, is all," she said casually before getting up from the couch. "Do you want something to drink? My mom would scold me for not serving you anything," she asked as politely as she could.

"Er... No thanks. Then, just tell your mother that I said I wasn't thirsty or anything," he replied, trying to smile.

Amu smiled back a little without knowing, "Okay. So you're really okay with the plan?"

"Yup. I could care less if I ever get married for real," he replied, half joking as he also got up from the couch, getting ready to leave.

"I'll come see you again if I decide to change anything for the plan, okay?" she added.

Tadase simply nodded. '_Geez, I feel like I'm being ordered around or something,' _he realized to himself.

Suddenly, Amu's mom made her way into the living room. "Leaving already, Tadase-kun?" she asked, a bit surprised.

"Ah, yeah, I better get going now. I have some homework to do still," he said, sweatdropping.

"Oh wait, I thought I heard you and Amu-chan talking about a certain plan or something like that..." her mother said, just out of curiosity.

Tadase and Amu both looked at each other nervously at the mention of their plan from her mother. "O-Oh yeah! We decided that uh... we would meet up again the next day for ice cream! Ya know, to get to know each other more?" Amu said quickly after thinking up a hasty excuse.

"Oh... your first date, huh?" Amu's mom replied, chuckling.

"M-Mama!" Amu said, looking back sheepishly at Tadase who was chuckling nervously.

After that, Tadase left the house feeling like he had more things to worry about now. He didn't know what was wrong with his parents or Hinamori-san's parents for that matter, wanting to have them get married so soon. Shouldn't they at least wait until they both finish college and get a successful job? He heaved a big sigh and took out a piece of paper out of his pocket, looking at it with not so much interest. It had Hinamori-san's phone number scribbled onto it. It was only in need so that they didn't actually have to meet up if plans changed.  
The young modern prince sighed again. What has he got himself into now? A fake marriage? Really unlike him. And to have to put up with living with a stubborn girl who doesn't seem to like him much, he can't help but admit that waiting for the "divorce" would be a bit of a pain.

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The next day, Amu was just hanging around at home in her room. It was Sunday. It felt like it should finally be a normal day for her again, like she never had an arranged marriage that she planned to pretend to participate in. Suddenly her mother called her name from below.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"Amu, I thought you had a date with Tadase today?"

'_Geez, why did she remember this so well?' _she thought with a dull look on her face. The date was never meant to become reality. Sheesh. But she couldn't just tell her mother that the date had been cancelled, it would just worry her. She heaved a heavy sigh before replying loudly while emerging from her room and proceding down the stairs, "I do. I'm leaving for it right now."

Her mother smiled at her before Amu told her when she was going to be back and left the house. She had decided she had been inside the house too much anyways and should get outside for some more fresh air. Suddenly she passed by the mall and thought, '_Why not? I have money with me...__**.**__'_

A half hour had passed since Amu had walked around the whole mall, shopping for a few fashionable clothes and accessories of her interest. She suddenly walked by a jewelry store with dazzling jewels on all different kinds of things you could wear. Her eyes sparkled but then reminded herself that she normally didn't wear things this girly. She sighed and almost decided to exit the mall when she thought she caught a familiar blond man standing in that very store. "Tadase-kun?" she said, the words slipping out without thinking.

The princely young man turned to look at her, his hair slightly swishing as he did so. "Hinamori-san?" he was clearly surprised to see her here. He seemed to also blush since he just realized he was caught in a jewelry store.

Amu decided to walk closer out of curiosity. "What are you doing here?" she asked while, still holding like three of her shopping bags full of her stuff that she bought. Then she glanced at through the glass Tadase was peering at and noticed that they were all rings... proposal rings. She raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, my mother just told me that I should buy the wedding ring soon. I mean,... for a fake marriage to work, you still have to have a ring," he said sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"Sh!" Amu said suddenly, "Don't talk too loud!"

Tadase just stayed silent, sweatdropping. The pinkette looked thoughtful now and asked, "Have you picked a ring yet though?" He shook his head gently in reply. "Well, I haven't picked out a ring for you either...**.** So I'll just buy it right now too then."

"You really don't have to right now," Tadase started, but Amu butted in again.

"No, I just want to get it over with," she said, with that defiant, stubborn look on her face.

Tadase chuckled lightly, "Alright then. Well since you're here, what ring do you like?"

Amu raised an eyebrow in surprise now. She hadn't expected this and never thought about what she wanted her wedding ring to look like. Well since this is only a fake wedding, she shouldn't pick too seriously. "Um... how about that one?" she pointed at a certain ring in the middle of all the other blinding jeweled rings that was a diamond four-leaved clover. At least the design was supposed to look like a four leaved-clover which also looked like four hearts put together in the middle.

"Hm, good pick," Tadase complimented her. She almost blushed in reply but just mumbled a "Thanks" and pretended to walk around to look for a guy's ring for Tadase.

As Tadase told the person in charge of the store to get the ring he wanted to buy in a box, Amu asked him absent-mindedly, "What kind of ring do you want, Tadase-kun?"

"I don't really care," he simply answered without looking.

Suddenly, a certain ring caught her eye. It was really plain. At least to most people it would be. It was only a little thick silver ring with two small diamond drops on it to the side in the color of yellow or orange. '_Perfect,'_ she thought. It just looked like it suited Tadase too. As if it was modest just like who its master would be. "Ne, Tadase-kun, I chose your ring already."

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**OOOH! Next chapter will be the *DUN DUN DUN!* ceremony in which we've all always wanted Amu and Tadase to have together. ~.~**


	4. Wedding of Reality

**Whoa. I didn't expect this chapter to be so long. o.o Anyways... Imma rant first. It is so STINKIN' HOT OVER HERE! GAH! }:O And MAN do I hate mosquitos! I got a mosquito bite already on my knee! T^T I curse them all to get cooked up someday and be fed to spiders! Or frogs! Even Ikuto if it's possible! Whatever, I just want them to suffer! DX *ahem* Okay. So, I had to look up and research some things just to make this wedding look a little real. And I just wanna say that everything that is said by the preacher in here is NOT made up by me! It was all totally completely copied from a site because I know so very little about weddings. Just the preacher's preaching part though. u_u **

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In just a matter of days, Amu's wedding dress was already picked out. Amu's mom had specified the design for it when she was ordering it for her since Amu didn't seem like she cared what it looked like. Amu wanted to look best and have the best things during the wedding with the one she _truly_ loves in the future, which she doesn't know who yet. Definitely not that princely guy though.

So, again, she didn't want to act like this was too serious. Hers and Tadase's "relationship" was going to end up in a divorce anyways. At least until she gets a good job that she's satisfied with... er, make that until the _both_ of them get jobs. Since her wedding dress was already picked out and bought, obviously Tadase-kun's outfit would be ready to go as well and the wedding was now only in a few days.

Amu sighed heavily as she thought about all this when walking out of her room to her car. She decided she was going to go home again after class. She didn't like spending time in her college room that she shared with a roommate anyways. Her roommate who was Mashiro Rima, a rather short girl with outrageously long, stunning, beautiful wavy hair and piercing amber eyes, also didn't seem to like or care for her much. She sometimes glared daggers at Amu whenever she would walk in the room just to get something to study with or to simply do homework while Rima was silently reading her mangas. Amu had noticed most of them were gag mangas too. She didn't understand it herself why this touchy girl would even read such mangas. It didn't seem like... her thing.

A few other things that Amu had also noticed about this girl was that she was also never in the room that much. Sometimes, Amu would even see her getting picked up from school by what may seem like her parents. Although Rima may be a pretty short person for her age, it would seem to Amu that she would be able to drive her own car as well, so why would she need to picked up still anyways? Amu had thought many times that her roommate might be some secretly rich princess. She did have a lot of boys trying to hit on her, but knowing Rima from how long she's stayed with her, she must've always rejected them with cold eyes. But still, she always had boys drooling over her. Ugh.

But as Amu was just about to close the door to her room while Rima was in there doing homework, [which was rare for Amu to see anyways] the small woman called out to her suddenly, surprising Amu, "Wait."

Amu turned around slowly facing her roommate, as if suspecting some kind of sudden attack from Rima. "Yeeah?" she replied cautiously.

"I heard you were getting married," she said plainly.

A mental alram went off in Amu's head. '_How did she know about this?!' _she wondered alarmingly. She never remembered telling anyone else about her arranged marriage... unless it was Tadase-kun. Amu mentally shook her head. No, he wouldn't go around telling people about a wedding he wasn't excited for like her. Plus, why would _she_ even care if Amu was getting married or not? That alone, was odd enough. Finally, Amu gathered her thoughts carefully and asked Rima as calmly as possible, "How did you know?"

The quiet yet intimidating young woman simply extended a finger and pointed at a ring on one of the bedside tables. Amu looked and realized that it was her engagement ring. **(A/N: No, that is not the same as her wedding ring. u_u) **It was a ring given to her parents by Tadase-kun's parents symbolizing her official engagement between Tadase and her. Even though his parents had come to discuss about their wedding with her parents without her or Tadase-kun being there. They had decided everything on their own, disappointing Amu greatly, just like that.

Amu found herself quickly making her way toward the table and swiftly swept the ring up in her hand. It was a pretty small silver ring with a ruby diamond in the middle. It looked rather ancient to Amu. As she turned back to Rima, she found herself hesitating to discuss about her own wedding with her. "W-Well, yeah. Why did you notice?" she asked.

Rima just shrugged, "I found it strange."

Amu was about to fume with anger, taking this in an offensive way. But Rima continued to speak, "You just all of sudden have to marry when you're not done with college yet,... it's an arranged marriage isn't it?"

The pinkette just stared at her as if she was some mysterious spirit lingering in the room. "Um... yeah...," she answered slowly. This was why she never did wear her engagement ring much and only wore it when she was around her parents. She didn't want anyone knowing about her wedding but this woman managed to find out on her own. It made Amu think that she could be some kind of stalker, but she didn't seem like the type. At least, she would like to think so.

"Oh. Okay," Rima simply said and started packing up her papers. Amu just stood there dumbfounded. What was her deal? That was pretty nosy of her roommate. And unusual too. Oh well, looks like her mom's coming to pick her up again. Such over-protective parents, Amu thought. Amu walked out without saying anything more to the girl as she slowly placed the ring around her ring finger.

As she was walking to her car, she was surprised to see a certain man sitting on top of it in front of the windshield. Amu's anger vein appeared and she threw her school bag at him the moment she got there. "What the heck are _you_ doing on my car?! You're really getting on my nerves now, you know that?!" she fumed at the blue haired, cat-like person.

Ikuto slowly jumped off and lifted up Amu's school bag lazily. "I was just waiting for you because...," Amu waited intensely for the explanation as he paused then continued, "I was bored." The anger mark again, appeared on Amu's forehead as she yanked her school bag away from Ikuto angrily.

"Get lost!" she yelled as she opened her car door.

Suddenly, Ikuto grabbed her arm. "Wait. Don't you at least want to know the real reason why I'm here waiting for you this time?"

"I already _do_ know. You don't have a job _and _a life," she huffed at him as she threw her school bag inside.

Ikuto merely snorted, "We'll see about that. I'm about to leave in a few days."

At this, Amu suddenly got curious. "To where?"

"To Europe and everywhere else around the world. I'm going to join a professional orchestra group and perform for a lot of people with my violin," he paused then smirked. "Once I'm gone, I won't be back much."

Amu pondered a bit but simply turned her back to him to start her car, "Hmph. Good. I don't have a cat to bother me all the time anymore then."

"Aw, come on. Don't be so--" Ikuto abruply stopped mid-sentence, noticing something.

Before Amu could shut her car door as she was in there already, Ikuto stopped her, looking at her with a deeply confused look that she's never seen before. "Your ring... You're getting married?" he asked quietly but clearly shocked.

Amu quickly hid her left hand as if it wasn't too late to hide the truth from this annoying man yet. "Y-Yeah, got a problem?" she asked, feeling ignorant for some reason.

"...Nothing, just shocked that you would ever be engaged with someone..." he answered after what seemed like a whole minute.

"What's that supposed to mean? Ugh! Just leave me alone, it's all I beg for," she said furiously before slamming her car door shut and drove out of sight back home.

Ikuto stood there in the parking lot, carrying his violin, looking like a loner as he stared off after Amu. Who could she be getting married with? Would he be able to find out before it was time for him to leave? He would've never thought the heart of a girl that he's vow to claim as his own one day would have to escape from his hands so fast. Before he could've even realized his real dream. Why is that?

* * *

"Amu-chan! Are you done yet?!" Hinamori Midori called for her daughter as she was getting her wedding dress on after her hair had been done.

"Mom! Calm down, it's not like the wedding's starting this minute!" she yelled back irritably. The feeling she had right now was different than what she was expecting. She knew that this marriage was not going to become reality but no matter how she looks at it, she feels nervous about going up front with Tadase-kun in front of so many people. And at this point, she just realized that eventually, her and Tadase have to kiss to show that this wedding is real indeed. '_We didn't even get to practice!' _Amu had thought but immediately felt stupid afterwards and mentally slapped herself. '_Calm down, Amu," _she told herself as she slowly walked out of the dressing room in front of her mother who was wearing a plain yet pretty magenta-colored dress with a small flower in the top upper right of her shoulder and had also put her hair in her usualy ponytail pulled up in the front.

Her mother smiled as she watched her daughter place her wedding crown on top of her strawberry-milk-colored hair that was put in a small bun, that allowed most of her hair to fall out in front like her bangs, with a white daffodil-like flower placed in it. Amu was wearing a strapless white dress that flowed behind her like a while river. There was a bow in the back that had frilly long ribbons coming out of it at the ends. As Amu looked at her own image in the mirror, she hadn't expected herself to be so pleased with how her dress looked on her. In a sense she kind of felt... happy for some reason. Then again, she mentally slapped herself for feeling such an emotion. But then maybe it was okay just to show her parents that she really was okay with this wedding even though it was arranged.

Finally, Amu was led down the aisle with her father to the wedding preacher who was standing behind a podium and Tadase who was standing just in front of it on top of a lower step.

As the pink-haired bride finally reached her princely groom, her father finally departed from her with tears in his eyes. Amu sweatdropped at her father's childish character. She wasn't expecting him to be this way even on her wedding day. She then turned to look at Tadase through her wedding veil, who was actually smiling at her. Amu blushed unconcsiously and smiled a little back thinking that it was because Tadase's smile was contagious. '_It's okay, Amu, it's just an act. When it's all over, life will be good... life is good," _the stubborn bride mentally told herself over and over as her grip on her bouquet of flowers tightened even more. God, she's acting like this is her real wedding. She forced herself to stare at her flowers this time, which were just a bunch of yellow and white daffodils but for some reason it calmed her down when in their presence.

It seemed like a whoe hour had flown by when the preacher was just preaching as Amu and Tadase both stood side by side, having afterthoughts or worrying about something that would happen afterwords. At last, the preacher had come to the most important part and gestured for the ring bearers to come forth with the rings.

As Ami brought up the ring that Tadase had bought for Amu on a satin pillow and another certain blond-haired boy that Amu nor Tadase has never seen before brought up the one Amu bought for Tadase, Amu sucked in a breath silently. She hoped that she didn't obviously look nervous or anything. She usually wasn't afraid of anything big like this once she thought about the situation but she felt like she beginning to lose her cool. She quickly turned to Tadase, looking at his face for any sign of nervousy, wondering if he was feeling the same way. But it seemed impossible. It was almost as if he was wearing some sort of mask that couldn't be seen through.

Amu knew she had to put the ring on Tadase's finger first. She took Tadase's diamond droplet ring and slowly slid it on his ring finger on his left hand after he had lifted it up to her. Phew, she didn't mess up or anything like she thought might've happened. But then again, she was just being paranoid.

Little did she know that Tadase was staring at her curiously as well like she did before. For some reason, he could feel some kind of happiness fluttering in his heart. Was that supposed to happen even when you know you're just marrying someone on the outside? Maybe, it's because of the thought of making his parents happy by marrying Hinamori-san? Tadase shook the thought out of his head then started to pick up the four-leaved-clover ring and waited for Amu to lift up her gloved left hand. She did just that as Tadase held her hand while he slowly placed the ring on her ring finger. She never did notice how beautiful the ring actually looked when she first picked it out randomly. It was like, she just chose the best things for a fake wedding. But for some reason, she didn't feel like that. Her eyes sparkled without her knowing and she even had that faint pink color of a blush starting to appear on her cheeks, even though she wasn't exactly smiling at the moment, as she watched the ring slide all the way on her ring finger.

The preacher then continued to the questions and turned to Amu first, "Do you come to this marriage freely and of your own choosing?"

Amu replied with a firm "I do" as did Tadase when he was asked the same question. After another small speech that seemed worthless to Amu, the preacher then asked another questiont to the both of them one at a time, turning to Amu first again, "Do you promise to become the guardian of Hotori Tadase's solitude?"

The pink-haired bride almost hesitated to answering to that but she knew what to say and replied with another "I do" while staring intensely at Tadase, while thinking in her mind, '_I'm sorry that can't happen...__**.**__'_ She then started wondering what all this vowing was for if couples could just divorce anyways. Soon the same was asked to Tadase as well except with Amu's name in place this time and Tadase replied almost bluntly the same as Amu did.

After another small speech, the preacher finally said to both the bride and groom after what seemed like hours of just standing there in front of everyone that attended their 'fake' wedding, "I pronounce that you are now husband and wife. You may seal your vows with a kiss."

Amu continued to look at Tadase, hoping that he would just make the move first and then she'd play along. Well scratch that. Of course the groom would have to make the first move. Tadase reached out his hands to remove the veil and move it to the back from covering Amu's face. Tadase took in a deep breath before slowly leaning in for his, surprisingly, first kiss. Little did he know that it was also Amu's as he quickly locked his lips with hers while the crowd started cheering and clapping crazily. Amu's eyes lifted in surprise, as if she never expected the kiss even though she did and blushed furiously for the first time since she remembered in a long time for whatever it was. Tadase pulled back quickly looking out to the crowd, feeling rather foolish and linked arms with Amu as they continued to make their final exit. More like their escape.

* * *

Sigh. Ikuto slowly got up from a chair in an airport as his flight number had just been announced to be taking off very soon. As he walked by a few huge windows, getting closer to the gate, he peered out longingly already as if he would never see someone he thought very precious to him anymore. Which he probably won't if he decides to never come back. '_It's too bad... she failed to notice my feelings were true,' _he thought before he gave his plane ticket to the flight manager **(A/N: I am so guessing at these things...^^;) **and continued to board his plane.

* * *

**Ya know, I've been thinking, people ban the charas out of their stories too much.(including me) O_O Eh, guess it'll be fine without 'em. I still think this chapter is sort of... "eh." Like I rushed it too much or something. =_=**

**Added note: Oh yeah, here's something I just wanted to give you people to think about now. What do you think it meant when Rima suddenly asked about Amu's wedding like that? I just wanna see your thoughts :3 **

**BTW, I have a fanart of Tadase and Amu's wedding drawn! [Sadly, I didn't draw the kiss, I'm bad at those...-.-] Come check at my profile sometime to see it when I finally get it up if you want. ^.^ There will be a site if it won't show up. XD**


	5. Secrets?

**OH MY GAWD! Although this chapter has a lot of words, I thought it turned out so horribly! It's so crappy to me. T^T Sorry for the boring chapter, I had a small writer's block about halfway into the chapter and got stuck for a while. Just to let you know ahead of time, there's no big moment in here or anying, so I'm sorry for that too. Ya know, I even almost thought of discontinuing this story since I thought it wasn't going too good. I think I'm better off writing fairytales... =_= But anyways, thanks to ShadowsyaoranX-77 and Watashi no Kokoro for encouraging me to keep on continuing this story. Although this chapter was suck-ish to me, Imma try to make the story itself more interesting! :D**

* * *

"_This_ is your house?" Amu asked her "husband" she had just finished her wedding ceremony with as she stepped out of a black limousine seeing a rather large mansion-like house before her. It seemed to have a little traditional Japanese style to it as well.

"Um, well, my family kind of owned two houses already so they just gave this one all to me when I was old enough to live on my own. And of course when I suddenly had to get married," Tadase replied, leading Amu to the front of the house's gate as she struggled to keep most of her dress off the ground.

"Oh... well that's nice," she said, speechless when Tadase led her in through the front yard. Even though it was night, she could tell there were many different colorful flowers planted in the front yard. She wondered what the backyard would look like. Definitely bigger and even more gorgeous. Amu suddenly had a thought that maybe Tadase should have servants, it would be a pain to look after that whole house by himself. But then she immediately shook off the thought, remembering that she would be the one most responsible for that now that she had married into the Hotori family. She has to at least act like a good wife.

As Tadase led Amu farther into the house and to a master bedroom, Amu couldn't help but notice the house had some kind of lonely feeling to it. It looked nice and everything but she felt it was too quiet. Finally, they had reached the master bedroom of the house. Tadase opened the door, turned on the lights and motioned for Amu to walk in first. She walked in seeing a king size bed with pearl white covers and rose petals were sprinkled all over it. The room smelled really nice. She also noticed there was another door that looked like it led to a bathroom and there was also a slide door to a rather large balcony to the right. Amu's eyes sparkled in awe.

Suddenly Tadase spoke up, "I hope you'll like it here, you'll get this whole room to yourself. And don't worry, this house is still pretty new so it's still pretty clean."

Amu turned to look at him a little startled, almost forgetting that they'd have to sleep in seperate places and asked, "Wait, where are you sleeping then?"

"In another room, it's pretty large too. I'll be fine though. We'll just live in the same house like we're in two seperate apartment rooms, fine with you?" he asked, smiling sheepishly a little.

"Well, it's not like I was afraid you were gonna try anything," she said quickly turning away. "J-Just make sure you never go in my room or anything and I won't go in yours either. We're taking care of our own lives until the divorce too."

Tadase raised an eyebrow. Wasn't that practically what he just said earlier? Oh well. "Okay...**. **I'll be in my room if you need anything which is just a little down the hall from yours," Tadase said and walked out.

As soon as he left, Amu shut the door quietly and dropped herself on her bed lazily and sighing heavily. '_Some marriage that was,' _she thought to herself while rolling her eyes. Suddenly the scene when Tadase practically just pecked her lips played in her mind. Her face immediately turned red at the thought and she clapped her hand over her mouth as if scolding herself for bringing such an image up in her mind again. '_He practically just bumped my mouth, I bet it's bruising now,' _she thought irritably then started changing out of her wedding dress into a simply light yellow night gown and headed into her own bathroom to wash out her makeup and everything else. **(A/N: Dang Tadase, you bruised her lips?! D:)**

* * *

The next morning, Amu awoke to the smell of something that must've been freshly cooked food. As she slowly got out of bed, she realized that she had gotten married the day before, almost forgetting that from now on, she'd be living here. She quickly changed out of her night gown into some casual-looking clothes and slowly headed out from her room into the kitchen. She wasn't really used to sleeping on the first floor like that, well this whole house basically just has one floor except if you count the only attic room it had.

Amu yawned and stretched before she revealed heself completely in front of Tadase who was cooking a simple breakfast. Eggs, pancakes and... sausages, what did you expect? Amu raised an eyebrow at Tadase, who was wearing a simply collared, light t-shirt and khaki pants. "You cook?" she asked, as if she never expected him to know such a thing. Amu herself had never been someone that was very good at cooking, she always messed up the food when she tried to cook in life skills classes.

Tadase turned his head her way a little and smiled a little, "Um, well when I lived alone, I kind of have to learn how don't I?"

"Oh... I knew that," Amu said tiredly, not caring if she sounded stupid or not at the moment and sat down at the table that was there. When Tadase was finally done with the breakfast, he settled everything down on the table as Amu waited and sat down as well. The two just sat there staring at each other not saying anything or doing anything at the moment. Well, this is pretty awkward for the both of them since Tadase never really sat down and ate anything with just one other person and Amu never really liked eating in front of someone that wasn't really a part of her family. Well, she and Tadase are supposed to be family now.

"W-Well, what are you waiting for? It's not like I put poison in the food or anything," Tadase said sweatdropping.

Amu twitched. "Like you should be talking. You weren't starting to eat anything either," she said, finally picking up her fork and beginning to eat. Tadase sweatdropped before also starting to eat in silence.

'_Wow, we definitely don't look anything like husband and wife right now,'_ Tadase thought to himself, sweatdropping again.

When they were both somewhat close to finishing, Tadase suddenly spoke up again, "Hey um, Hinamori-sa--"

"Just call me Amu-chan. Geez, don't you know people will start wondering if they hear you call me that?" she said, almost getting annoyed.

"Right,...Amu-chan," he corrected himself. **(A/N: Does married couples even call each other with the honorofics? o.O) **"Did you... already have someone that you wanted to be married with before you had to marry me?" he asked randomly. Well to Tadase, of course it wasn't random, he had been wondering about it for a while, considering that Amu was the first one to suggest that they marry falsley. He assumed that she must've felt really strong about this marriage and might have loved someone else already.

Amu nearly fell out of her chair hearing that come out of Tadase and to think that the image of Ikuto actually first popped into her head too. _'What the heck is wrong with you, Amu?!' _she scolded herself. "N-No! I mean, it's none of your business even if I did! Why did you even ask?" Amu replied, bewildered.

Tadase chuckled softly at Amu's reaction and her face was slowly turning pink too, but it was unnoticable to Tadase. "Sorry, I was just wondering. Since I don't really know what true love really feels like... so I can't imagine how it feels like if you had to be separated from someone you already loved just because of an arranged marriage," he said, looking like he was staring off into space or somewhere distant.

Amu sat there, pondering while picking at the last remains of her food now. "So... Wait, you've never fallen in love or had a crush on anyone before?" she asked, curious now, since this was how she also felt like... almost.

"Yeah... kind of embarrassing really, heheh...," Tadase said sheepishly scratching the back of his head. He had no idea why he was opening up to her already.

"Oh well... actually, I'm the same too," Amu quietly admitted. "I've never been on a single date before and people always know that I think boys are a waste of time."

Tadase gave her curious look now. Amu wasn't liking where this is going. She didn't want Tadase to know too much about her and in the meantime until the 'divorce' she doesn't plan to get too close to him either, just to be safe. "Well, are you done with your plate already?" she said quickly trying to change the subject and was gathering up the dishes to wash them.

"Oh, you don't have to wash them, I'll just wa--"

"No. I'm washing the dishes. How can I be a successful wife then if I don't even help around?" Amu insisted to Tadase.

Tadase sighed, "You could do it another time. I'll allow you to be lazy this once since you don't know the house very well. Don't you want to look around here a little more so you know where to go when you need something and I'm not around? So I'll wash the dishes and you could just look around." Tadase smiled at Amu and gently took the dishes away from her and headed towards the sink.

'_Gosh, how many times can this guy smile?' _Amu wondered as she silently agreed. She felt like too much was happening for her right now anyways. Hopefully her other classmates at her college won't find out about her marriage with Tadase... at least not right away, hopefully. Who even gets married when they're still going to school anyways? Definitely not a lot of people but as long as it looks like both of them are single, it'll be fine right? Amu was just about to head out of the kitchen but decided to pause for a second then suddenly she turned to Tadase, "Oh, and that kiss from the wedding yesterday was my first kiss." She then quickly headed out of there not waiting to see Tadase's reaction. Tadase blinked several times a bit stunned before realizing that he should finish washing the dishes quickly or he'd get pruny fingers.

'_Why did she all of a sudden have to say that? Even I wouldn't admit that was my first kiss' _Tadase wondered while staring at the wall in front of him confused, as if some kind of answer would appear on it. Though at least he learned something new today, huh?

* * *

It was another school day for the college students of Japan again. As Amu walked into her room at the college about fifteen minutes before her next class was to begin to get her stuff, she found her roommate in there already getting her binders and everything ready as usual.

As she walked in just to get her school bag, Rima suddenly paused with whatever she was doing and slightly glanced at Amu. "Ne," her soft voice suddenly spoke to Amu.

Amu groaned inwardly, _'What now? Another random conversation?'_

"How was your wedding?" although Rima asked this, there was no look of amusement or curiosity in her eyes.

Amu was once again taken back. "H-How did you know I just recently had my wedding?!" She wasn't even wearing her wedding ring and didn't even bring it with her for fear that someone nosy may found out.

"I was there," she simply said as she got all of her necessary binders and books in her school bag. Before Amu could ask why she continued, "Your husband's parents somewhat knew my parents a little bit so we were invited. So, you're husband is actually Hotori Tadase."

Amu almost instinctly covered Rima's mouth when she said. She just absolutely did not want anyone else to know about this. "Sh! Can you not speak so loudly about this?" Amu pleaded.

Rima turned away as if considering her plea, "Only if you tell me... if this is a fake marriage or not."

The pinkette froze at her words now. "Well, yeah... Wh-Why do you want to know?"

"Um... I just have a similar situation," Rima said quietly before saying that she would leave now and quickly left the room.

"Huh? Similar situation...?" Amu said aloud slowly, as if she's never heard the words before. '_What... could she mean by that?'_ Amu wondered as she made her way to her next class afterwards.

* * *

**See?! What did I tell ya? How BORING. -.- I really didn't like this chapter that much at all. Even though there was like no Ikuto in it. =_= Anyways, suggestions on how to make this story more interesting or just simply better are greatly WELCOMED! I must say, I am an author who is pretty much helpless. ^^; *shot***


	6. Some Fears

**Fyen: Hello, hello! *Bows* **

**Kiseki: What the heck?!**

**Fyen: I have tried to make this chapter a lot better than my last one to make up for how crappy it was! So you people better LOVE this!**

**Kiseki: You're more demanding than me, commoner...**

**Fyen: I was kidding! Wait... AH KISEKI'S HERE AGAIN! *glomps him***

**Kiseki: AHHH! SHAME ON YOU FOR LAYING A FINGER ON ME!**

**Fyen: Heheh, my hyperness has come back... XD Beware... :D**

**Kiseki: TwT**

* * *

A few days passed with Amu and Tadase still being secretly unrelated whatsoever. There were a few times when Amu's teacher would sometimes say her full name out loud to hand them something or ask a question, but forunately, her name still remained the same as how she entered it to get into Tokyo University in the first place. **(A/N: I have no idea if that exists or not.)** Tokyo University was one of the best and biggest colleges that only good students could attend in Tokyo, Japan.

During those days, Amu had only left her dorm room to "her" house a few times to get to know every place in there better. Tadase on the other hand, stayed at his own house more often than Amu ever did. Did he not like his roommate or something? Or was he worried that his "wife" would do something stupid and mess up the house since she didn't know it very well yet? Psh, she doubted it. She even doubted that Tadase ever thought ill of people once or if he had ever felt like crap. He seemed calm, carefree and cheerful all the time. Even when he had an arranged marriage, he didn't act like he cared so much, it's like he's the type to suck up to everything. Amu often wondered what was really going on in his head after that little conversation she had with him that one morning after the wedding.

She shook the thought out, reminding herself that she had no business to do with him anyways. It was only about few more months of school she had until she would graduate and probably might become a professional fashion designer for real now. **(A/N: I really dunno if you have to go to college just to be a designer but I know that colleges can have a lot of varieties...o.o) **She didn't even get why you would have to go to college for this kind of thing but her parents, especially her mother, encouraged her to go anyways to sharpen her skills and so that she could even be the best designer in Japan someday. Amu scoffed at the idea though. She didn't care if she became famous or not, she just thought spreading her own sense of style would be good job for herself. On the other hand, she found her "husband" was learning to become some kind of teacher.

It made sense actually. He was always so cheerful and happy, kids would definitely not mind being around him. Amu smiled a little to herself as she walked in front her dorm room to get her stuff again. Her smile immediately dropped off as she caught herself thinking about Tadase, and her mouth might as well just disappear since she saw her roommate in there again, also getting her stuff.

Rima was just about to head out when Amu just so happened to stand there. As Rima continued to walk out not even looking or saying anything to Amu as if she was just thin air, Amu stopped her by walking directly in front of the quite short blonde.

Rima glared the usual daggers at Amu but Amu held her own stare. "I need to know about this 'situation' you were talking about last time. I've never got to ask you more about it ever since because it seems you were avoiding me."

"It would make sense to avoid someone as annoying as you," she replied plainly.

The pinkette flinched a little, "but you already know about my secret, I should at least know a little something about you. You've been my roommate for like two years already and I still feel like you're a stranger to me."

"So keep it that way then. Why do you want to change anything?" she asked with an expressionless face.

Amu was getting frustrated now. "Hey, now! You were being nosy in the first place!" she practically shouted in the short woman's face.

Rima seemed to reconsider this now and said quietly now, "Fine. My mother is wanting to find someone to marry me after I graduate. So in other words, I'll have an arranged marriage soon too."

Amu just stared at her and gawked like, '_That's it?! You're parents haven't even found a person for you yet and you say that's a SIMILAR situation to a fake relationship?!'_

"Are you kidding me? Get outta here!" Amu exclaimed, still astonished of the nerve of this girl to even be nosy about her relationship status in the first place.

The smaller woman glared at her once again. "I'm being serious here. My mother's actually already fou-- Ya know what? I even just told you enough already, so now that you know, don't bug me again," and Rima pushed past Amu and left.

The pink haired young woman stared after Rima with a little pitty in her heart but shook her head. "No one else could be arranging marriages like my parents and Tadase-kun's parents did. Seriously, no one does that anymore...," Amu muttered quietly to herself but she perceived to go insided the dorm and get her stuff. Once she got them and headed outside, she found Tadase waiting for her. She raised an eyebrow at him and quickly headed closer to him.

"What are you _doing _here?!" she practically hissed at him even though she remembered Tadase driving her to school in the first place. She just didn't want him to appear standing by her car just like that. What if people have thoughts about them already? "Do you want people to know about our relationship or something?"

Tadase replied calmly while slinging his own school bang over his arm, "It can't be helped, remember that my parents called the day before to tell me that I should drive you to school and back whenever you need it from now on. They could be visiting soon for all I know, can't take the chance and let them be suspicious of us already."

Amu rolled her eyes, '_As if he wasn't polite enough.' _"Whatever, just hurry up and get out of here before someone sees...**.**" She handed him her keys and they both climbed into the small red car of Amu's with Tadase in the driver's seat. **(A/N: I dunno what car it is, imagine it for yourself. u_u)**

**...**

Once they got to Tadase's-- I mean their house, they both immediately got to doing their own thing. Tadase went about studying for another exam before the final one for a bit while Amu happened to finish homework early and got to exploring the large house a bit more.

The pinkette found herself looking in all the othe empty rooms of the house again. They were the same as she saw them before, empty, plain, maybe needs a little cleaning as well. Sigh. Amu didn't feel like cleaning right now, she never did. In fact, her parents never even ordered her to do housework back when she was still living with them. She didn't even know how to cook well. But Amu knew that at some point in life, you had to do these things and it was always the wives that did it. She had no doubts however that Tadase would clean his own house though. He's just probably can't clean it often enough because it's... well a pretty big house.

The problem is, she just knows that she sucks at it. But Amu shrugged. She could always do it another time. Suddenly, as Amu walked past another room a little more slowly, something caught her eye. She walked inside and found that there was a black piano in there. '_Huh? Who plays a piano here? Tadase?' _she wondered, never even thinking once that Tadase could be someone capable of being able to play some kind of instrument. She walked over to it and slowly dragged her fingers across it, collecting some of the dust of the thin coat of dust that had already covered the surface of the piano.

She could tell, it hadn't been used in a while. Amu couldn't believe she missed something like this the last time she thought she looked everywhere already. But now, all the dust in the room was really bothering Amu now. She quickly got over to the window in the room and drew back the curtains of a window, revealing broad daylight into the room but it also showed that dust was flying everywhere now. '_Ugh! Where does he keep a duster around here?' _Amu wondered irritably as she walked out, trying to find one. After about ten minutes of searching and finding nothing that looks even like a duster, she stormed to Tadase's room to ask him, where he was supposedly studying.

When she knocked on the door, there was no answer. "Tadase-kun?" she called out finally. Still no answer. She opened the door on her own then, just to find that Tadase had left the room already. Where could he have gone? Frustrated, Amu wandered around the house just yelling out his name repeatedly and being louder each time.

Finally, when Amu paused, she thought she heard some kind of sound like water being sprayed over something coming from somewhere behind the whole house. She walked over to the Japanese style paper slide door that led to the backyard and slid it open slowly. She then noticed the blonde-haired, prince-like "husband" of hers holding a hose that was spraying water over plenty of plants. '_There he is! ...Watering... flowers?' _Amu stood there looking puzzled and cocked her head. But then she was easily distracted by what was planted in the backyard. It was like a whole garden of different kinds of flowers. Some that she's never even seen before.

Amu looked around in awe as she slowly walked out onto the wooden boardwalk of the house. She couldn't believe she didn't think of checking out the backyard of the house earlier. She then also noticed that there was sakura tree planted a little farther back in the backyard as well, but it looked to be only about six or seven feet tall. Since it was spring already, the buds had already blossomed a bit already. Amu's also noticed the most kinds of flowers there seems to be planted here were daffodils and other kinds of flowers that were white.

Suddenly, Tadase stopped watering and noticed Amu staring at the flowers that were arranged in neat little square patches around some paths where people could walk through on. There was even a little fountain that had running water coming out of a stone fish's mouth. He couldn't help but notice that Amu was smiling a little. "Oh, Amu-chan. You haven't seen the garden yet?" he talked suddenly to her, which startled Amu a bit.

She quickly gave her attention to him though, so as to show that she wasn't that impressed or anything. "No... I h-haven't had time. Hey, did you actually plant all of this yourself?" she asked him, clearly curious now.

"Uh, yeah... You're shocked that a guy would plant flowers like this, aren't you?" Tadase admitted sheepishly.

"Well... I don't think it matters... if you can't help it," she replied, slowly making her way around the garden to the sakura tree behind Tadase while taking in all the different scents around her.

He looked at her contentedly and curiously. "Do you like flowers?"

Amu sat down at the foot of the small sakura tree where there was grass around it and took her time to feel pleasant with the scene around her before answering Tadase, "Um... they're not exactly my type of thing but... they're pretty. They make everything seem... peaceful. I guess I do like them."

Tadase smiled at her then looked somewhere else which made him look like he was staring off into space, "I think flowers have some kind of magical strength in them. They always give off a good feeling to me..."

"Yeah...," Amu said and smiled unconcsiously in front of Tadase. She did in fact feel peaceful and joyful right now, so much that she forgot what she originally wanted to see Tadase for in the first place. The pinkette leaned backwards a little as her palms were propped against the ground behind her, and looked around at the cherry blossoms that had already begun blossoming. The contented woman's smile immediately slipped off her face as she suddenly felt something fall on her hand behind her. She slowly turned her head to see her hand, fearing of what that 'something' might be and found some kind of long insect with at least twelve or twenty legs squirming around on her hand, trying to turn its body over since it's belly was facing up.

Amu's eyes were suddenly the size of frisbees as she twitched once...**.** "...AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! C-C-C-ATERPILLAR!!! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!!!" she exclaimed in terror as she jerked herself up, frantically shaking off the caterpillar, and tackled Tadase who was standing nearby, hugging Tadase's neck as if for dear life as she buried her face into his chest, yelling all the while. Tadase, who was startled by the sudden glomp, sweatdropped at the once-stubborn girl as she hung onto him still in fright.

He felt uneasy for some reason and wasn't sure how to react to this as he patted her back lightly, "Uh, it's just a caterpillar... It's gone now, Amu-chan...**.**" He would've never guessed Amu was the type to be afraid of bugs. Amu suddenly realized what she was doing and immediately released Tadase then backed away a few inches, still startled.

"Oh s-sorry...," she apologized and a light blush was visible on her cheeks but then she remembered about the gross bug on her hand. "J-Just a caterpillar, you said?! DID YOU SEE THAT THING?! It was HUGE! And fat! It was like three inches wide, oh my god! And it was on my freaking hand too!" she exclaimed, now staring at her right hand in disgust. "Why didn't you tell me there were bugs in this garden before?!"

Tadase gave her a credulous look. '_Well, bugs are pretty much everywhere outside...' _he stated obviously to himself while sweatdropping at Amu's ridiculous reaction. The pink-haired, frightened woman now looked around, afraid that the insect might be on her foot this time or something. _'She's so weird...,' _Tadase thought then suddenly bursted out laughing pretty hard.

Amu now looked at him with a puzzled look then realized how out of character she must've looked and tried to straighten herself out. "Wh-What are you laughing about? That wasn't funny at all, ya know!" the pinkette said stubbornly to the laughing man before her. He was holding his stomach from too much laughter now. "That's annoying, seriously! Hey!"

"S-Sorry, that was just too funny...Ahaha...," he managed to say in between light laughs now. Amu twitched in slight annoyance as she folded her arms across her chest but also fought the urge to laugh a little at herself. She's never even seen Tadase laugh like this before... but then again it must be because she still doesn't know too much about him. Like how he loved flowers. When Tadase finally stopped laughing, he apologized again this time half-jokingly, "Sorry about that, Amu-chan. If I would've known you were scared of bugs, I wouldn't have let you into the garden at all."

"I'm not really... _that _scared of bugs, it's just,... it got on me. But I'm fine now," she replied, still trying to show that she didn't really care or anything.

"Ahah, okay okay," Tadase said, in a manner like he was giving in to his "wife's" stubborness. "Well, it's kind of getting late now, I'm going to go inside to make dinner then," he said with a small smile to Amu as he started to head inside. Amu followed inside as well.

When they were both inside the house, Amu suddenly called Tadase's name, catching his attention again and seemed to be hesitant to say something, "Um... is there anything... interesting about this house that I should know about?"

Tadase raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at her. "Hm... are you getting scared of this house already?"

"It's not that! That back there was just... the garden. I'm just wondering... so just tell me."

Tadase looked up at the ceiling, seeming to think of something. There really is nothing all that interesting about the house unless Amu wanted to know if there were spiders or anything in the house...**. **"Hm, I don't really know anything but I heard once that before this house was built, there was a graveyard here. But that might just be a rumor, don't worry about it," the young man responded innocently stating the truth.

Amu felt herself gulp but she gave Tadase an annoyed look. "I wouldn't be scared even if that was true. It's not like there is such thing as ghosts or anything if that's what you're implying," she said with a firm voice, but really, she was having some chills already.

"Hm, true," he simply said as he continued to head off to the kitchen. Amu stood in the same spot near the slide door to the garden behind her. She looked around and took in her surroundings a bit more than the first she came here and shivered. Despite all the nice view the house gave, Amu coudn't help but feel like it kind of did make sense if there were ghosts here... it was all so quiet and big. It reminded her of a haunted mansion.

Suddenly Amu, rushed to the kitchen after Tadase, "W-Wait! Tadase-kun, I'll cook dinner this time!"

* * *

**Fyen: What's up? :D**

**Kiseki: I'm not going to even ask this time... -_-|||**

**Fyen: Oh sorry, there's someone on T.V. right now that keeps yelling 'What's up?' '_'**

**Kiseki: *sigh* You get sidetracked too much. **

**Fyen: I know, it happens all the time when I'm writing. u_u But anyways, I'm almost gonna die from allergies! YAY! *sarcasm* Reviewing can help heal me though. :3**

**Kiseki: Pathetic. u_u**

**Fyen: Do not underestimate my intentions! GRRR. }:O**

**Kiseki: ^^;**


	7. New Feelings

**Fyen: *bows* GO-ME-NA-SAI MIN-NA!!! DX**

**Kiseki: I don't think they care if you apologize or not. u_u**

**Fyen: I don't care! Anyways, thanks for all of your reviews and sorry for the major late update again. I've been busy with school stuff, been grounded before that and now I feel terribly sick. My head throbs, my nose won't work and--**

**Kiseki: Get to the point already! No one wants to hear you rant!**

**Fyen: Says the chibi king who gives world domination lectures. e_e**

**Kiseki: SILENCE! That's not the point!**

**Fyen: Anyways... uh OH YEAH! There is a song mentioned in here called Planetarium, I do not own it! You should try listening to it once though, ish a Korean song from a drama I heard about but never watched. u_u I came across it in a Tadamu vid on youtube once though but I don't know where it went, it was so cute though! T_T**

**Kiseki: Again, quit your ranting!**

**Fyen: *keeps ranting***

**Kiseki: OI! }8O**

_

* * *

_

_'Ugh, how did I get myself into this?' _the pink haired "housewife" thought to herself as she struggled to find extra spices and other things to help her successfully prepare two bowls of ramen. When Amu had kept on insisting to Tadase that she cooked dinner, he had finally give in and let her. Then it hit her that she didn't even know how to cook any Japanese dishes very well so she decided to just get some ramen ready for the both of them as she started boiling water in a metal teapot over the stove in the kitchen. It was, after all, the easiest meal Amu could cook up. She even had a few tips on how to make the ramen taste better from a certain idol singer that she got to know for a while because of Ikuto. But now, even ramen was seeming a little too difficult for Amu to settle with making.

Finally, Amu had everything she needed out on the counter top. She just needed to wait for the water to boil now. _'Tadase-kun's probably hungry by now too...,' _she realized when her own stomach started growling quietly. When the the teapot finally let out a whistle, signaling that the water is ready for the ramen now, Amu quickly made her way to it and lifted it up. As clumsy Amu really was, she accidentally burnt herself while pouring boiling hot water into one of the bowls. She let out a sharp yelp settling down the teapot quickly and yanked her finger away, cursing under her breath. "Dang it! Why am I so clumsy?!" she said aloud out of frustration as she just stood there holding her finger, not even knowing where Tadase keeps the aid stuff in this house.

"Are you okay, Amu-chan? What happened?" the sound of Tadase's voice suddenly caused her to turn his way.

"It's nothing!" she quickly lied as she continued trying to make their dinner. Tadase eyed her with a strange look as Amu finished with pouring the water and brought the bowls to the dining table. He noticed that she winced when she settled down the bowls.

"You burnt your finger didn't you?" he suddenly said to her.

"Well, it's only a little burn, so I'm fine. Just eat already or the food'll get cold!" she said, trying to change the subject. Why was she being so stubborn? Even Amu didn't understand why.

"The food can wait," Tadase replied and left Amu to get a wet handkerchief. When he came back, he took Amu's left hand without hesitation and rubbed where her burn was gently with the handkerchief. "You should be more careful, you know," he said, keeping his focus on her finger.

Amu sweatdropped. "You don't have to act like my mom, I could've taken care of it on my own...," she said quietly. She didn't know why but she felt a tingling sensation come to her when Tadase suddenly took so much attention to her little burn. It was the same feeling that she had when their wedding ceremony was being held.

"Well, that burn looks pretty bad. You can't just leave it like that and act like nothing happened. Is it so important for you to act tough?" Tadase's eyes suddenly looked serious.

Amu found herself not able to say anything back. "Eh...?"

When Tadase finally realized how long he's been holding her hand, he finally let go and just handed Amu the handkerchief. "Uh... you can find some ointment for that in the bathroom cupboards," he finally said.

"Oh okay... thanks. And you should probably get to eating now...**.**"

"Right...**.**"

_'This is so weird, why is it all of sudden getting awkward again?' _Amu thought as she quickly made her way to the bathroom. She had found the ointment and was applying it to her burn now. A faint blush was slightly visible on her cheeks as her lips curved upwards a tiny bit as she stared at her finger. _'He's not so bad after all...,' _she actually admitted unconcsiously to herself this time and without mentally slapping herself.

. . .

_'Night time now. It's alright, Amu. You've slept peacefully every night before, you're gonna be alright tonight too.' _the foolish young woman kept repeating to herself as she tried to sleep, her eyes tightly shut but she was still wide awake in her bedroom. She had left the curtains of her slide door wide open, so the moon was practically blaring in her face now but that wasn't the only thing that kept her awake.

Amu was afraid. Terrible afraid of mystical things such as... ghosts. She had always been a wimp but no one had ever seen that side of her or even thought she had any fears for anything much less of something that probably doesn't even exist. And so, after just that little mention that there may have been a graveyard that used to be here, she had started feeling unaturally scared. Amu normally would've never been scared just because of such a rumor but she had seen one particularly _pretty_ scary video about ghosts once and it was _pretty_ convincing so... she just didn't want to remember about it.

_Woosh. _Amu's eyes rapidly fluttered open, her heart pounding. She quickly sat up, looking around for something-- anything that had made that creepy sound. She suddenly felt chilly and could feel the goosebumps on her bare arms. '_That's just because you're wearing a short sleeved shirt, no big deal...' _she told herself, trying to convince herself that she wasn't scared. _Wooo_osh. There it was again, except this time Amu actually felt cold air blow around her. She turned to look at her slide doors leading to her low balcony-like platform that gave a beautiful view of the garden that Tadase took care of. The slide door was actually open a crack.

She raised her eyebrows in confusion. Sure she remembered she went out there for fresh air a few hours ago but she could've sworn she shut and even locked the door when she came back inside. Oh well. '_See, Amu? There was nothing to worry about, just close the door now,' _her conscious told her. As Amu got up to shut the door, she suddenly froze. She couldn't move. Her eyes were wide with unspeakable fear and mouth hung open, as if she wanted to say something but her voice had left her momentarily. A vision of a hollow-like person was standing just outside her balcony doors. The body was all a blur and you could see through it except for the face and dark-looking hair hung from it's sides. It looked familiar but horrifyingly ugly at the same time. It had hollow eyes staring back at Amu and its mouth was hung slightly open but it was actually moaning. A sound really unpleasant for anyone as afraid of Amu to hear.

_"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" _Tadase nearly fell out of his bed at the sound of a scream. He looked around warily, slowly being alert of who screamed that. He suddenly thought of Amu. There must be something wrong. He quickly headed out of his room and across to Amu's room, just swinging the door open and flipped on the lights.

"Amu-chan?! What's wrong?" he asked worriedly as he saw Amu cuddled into a ball on her bed with the covers thrown off and a horrified look on her face as she was shaking slightly. Tadase walked closer to her and asked her again, "Amu-chan, what happened?!"

She finally came to her senses that it was Tadase in her room. "N-Nothing. I'm fine now..." But of course Tadase wasn't going to buy that and stared intensely at her, trying to force the truth out.

Amu's face suddenly flushed in major embarrassment as she curled tighter into a ball and hid her face in between her knees. "I had a nightmare, okay?! And it's all your fault!" Amu had never had such a horrid nightmare in her life before, and to think it was all because of what she heard and her being paranoid.

Tadase looked taken aback as he just stood there, not knowing what to think or say to her. He never even thought that Hinamori Amu could have nightmares and suddenly scream in the middle of the night like that. "W-Wait, my fault?!" he finally asked, confused.

The embarrassed woman peeked out from under her elbows as she continued to hug her knees and mumbled, "You told me there used to be a freaking graveyard here..."

Tadase sweatdropped at her response. "S-So that was what all this was about? Gomen... but that really was a rumor," he said, trying to make her mood lighten at least a little bit but it didn't seem like he was giving much help.

Amu now lifted her head all the way up now and narrowed her eyes at Tadase as if she noticed something. "Hey,... you entered my room without permission," she said twitching a little.

Tadase finched. "Oh! Well,... I had to see if you were okay, I mean your scream was pretty loud and it woke me up and everything--"

Amu sighed loudly before resting her chin back behind her knees again. Her face had lost some of it's red color now. "But now you've seen how I'm really like now...**. **You're shocked, aren't you?" she asked, almost young man in his plain pale blue pajamas looked a little surprise at Amu now but stayed silent.

"I know... I know I'm a real wuss and get scared of everything easily... I hate that about myself. I'm never really like how I appear to be in front of everyone, I've realized...**. **You really shouldn't worry about me," she continued quietly, her eyes shifting downwards in embarrassment. It wasn't normal for Amu to have another person see her cower like that. If only she really was who she thought she was.

The so-called husband had listened in silence, his eyes softened. "I understand," he finally said.

Amu lifted her head all the way up again and looked at Tadase, "Huh?"

"It's just like you said about yourself, not everyone is who everyone thinks they are...," he said, seeming to remember some distant memory as his gaze drifted to the outside of the glass slide door in Amu's room.

"Wh...What do you mean?"

"Um, well," the young man before Amu seemed to hesitate a bit while scratching the side of his head sheepishly, "When I was younger, I appeared to be mature and polite to everyone all the time when... I used to want world domination?"

Silence. Tadase stood there feeling uneasy as Amu's face never changed expression for a few moments. Her eye twitched once, then her lips started trembling as her mouth wickedly started curving upwards, revealing a huge smile on her face. '_Oh great,_' Tadase thought meekly. Almost right after he had thought that, the pinkette had exploded into stifles of laughter.

"A-Are you serious?! _You_ having world domination?! AHAHAHA! Th-That's--heheh-- hilarious!" Amu said in between laughs as she wiped a tear from her eye. Tadase had started chuckling himself when he saw Amu laugh that hard. She looked pretty cute laughing like that too. '_Wonder why she hides her smile a lot?' _he wondered before he stopped and realized maybe Amu was laughing a little too hard. Her face was as red as it had been again when she first woke up screaming from her nightmare.

"You can stop laughing now... It really wasn't that funny," he said, sweatdropping when Amu finally calmed down.

"Hey, that's revenge for laughing at me earlier today," she countered, wearing that usual stubborn look on her face again.

Tadase brought his hand up to his mouth and yawned, "Looks like you'll be okay now. You should get some rest now, good night then, Amu-chan." As he started walking towards Amu's bedroom door, Amu called his name.

"W-Wait... I don't think I can sleep now...," she said quietly, her stubborn look turning into a look of shame as she played with her fingers nervously.

'_She can't mean... she wants me to stay here until she sleeps or anything, does she?' _Tadase thought, disbelieving the thought though as he just looked at Amu.

"Wh-Why aren't you saying anything? I'm just spooked okay?! Don't look at me like that!"

"Oh it's nothing... What was in your nightmare that made you so scared though?"

"Ik-- I mean! Uh, it's just a very creepy-looking ghost I saw...," Amu said, almost saying Ikuto's name. Shortly after she had woken up screaming, she had then realized that figure in her dream had looked like Ikuto. It was definitely weird seeing him as a ghost and well, moaning creepily as well. She shivered at the memory. Too scary indeed. She was pretty sure Tadase wouldn't know Ikuto or anything and so she wouldn't want to bother explaining either.

Tadase sighed, seeming to give in to whatever Amu was trying to get at but he had a better idea. "Follow me then if you don't want to be alone and scared again," Tadase said gently as he made his way out of Amu's room. Amu, who was wondering why she should follow him, didn't bother to ask and just followed.

They went past a few doorways and finally, Tadase came into room that had moonlight literally lighting up almost the whole room from it's only big window. Amu saw this room just earlier before she discoverd the garden. "It's this room...," she silently said as they both walked in without turning on the lights since the moonlight made their surroundings visible enough.

"Hm? So you've seen my piano already?" Tadase seemed to be amused now as he slowly walked over to the black-glossed instrument that still had some dust on it.

"Yeah... I never knew you played the piano either. Do you play it a lot?" she asked as she watched Tadase blow the dust off of the piano and sat down on the piano chair. His eyes seemed to soften a little as he lifted the cover off of the piano keys.

"Not really, sad to say. I'm not really that good at it either. Plus, I haven't really had time..., but maybe this could help take your mind off of your nightmare?" he offered with a smile to Amu as she took a seat, with a blanket from he room wrapped around her shoulders, on a cushioned chair with arm rests that was near the window. Amu nodded eagerly in reply as her eyes already started to glitter with anticipation. She had always thought it fascinating whenever someone would play some kind of instrument since she didn't have such a skill herself. Besides, it really would help her soothe her mind a little.

Tadase just smiled and took a deep breath. He didn't have any music to look at but he had a song memorized by heart already in his mind. A song called "Planetarium." He played a few stray notes on the keys just to start getting the feel of playing the piano again before he started playing slow gentle notes right after each other until the song changed into a bit more lively-sounding melody but still gentle and sweet to Amu. She watched Tadase play in the moonlight in awe. Tadase's eyes seemed to glitter with excitement as he played but only a soft smile showed on his fair face making his princely features seem all the more charming even if he was only in a long sleeved, pale blue, buttoned-up pajama shirt and dark blue, plaid pajama pants. After all, a prince can look dashing in anything, right? Amu slowly closed her eyes as she laid her head back, bathing herself in the moonlight that had been shining like fairy dust at the moment as she enjoyed the soothing soft melody of the song.

After seven minutes of playing, Tadase finally finished off with quieter notes and stood up. He looked over at Amu and smiled to himself. The pinkette had fallen asleep in the chair to the sound of his playing the piano, her head tilted slightly to one side as she breathed softly and evenly with the blanket still around her shoulders.

The princely husband of the sleeping beauty sighed as he walked over to Amu and picked her up bridal style. "How troublesome...," he muttered with a small smile as he continued carrying her out of the room and into her own room. When he finally layed her on her own bed and started to pull the covers over her, he paused and smiled to himself again as he stared at Amu's peacefully sleeping face. "What a silly girl," he said softly as he unconcsiously slowly touched her face with the back of his fingers gently. He then realized what he was doing and yanked his hand back then stood up quickly, face reddening althought not visible in the darkness.

'_Wh-What am I doing?!' _he asked himself, almost mortified and mentally pinched himself. '_It's alright, you guys are just becoming friends, that's all,' _Tadase assured himself before closing Amu's curtains at her glass doors and headed out of her room back to sleep. He realized it was 3:47 am before he had actually went to sleep. '_She really is troublesome, huh?'_

* * *

**Fyen: Okay that's it! Please review if you can and wish me luck with killing my sickness! XD**

**Kiseki: And wish me luck with world domination too! :D**

**Fyen: Yesh! ^-^**


	8. Sickness Trouble

**Fyen: MWAHAHAHAHAHA! I FINALLY updated! WAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *runs away laughing***

**Kiseki: *ahem* First of all, that idiot commoner over there is terribly, deeply, super duper, uberly, very muchly sorry for updating nearly 4 months later than the last chapter. She has-**

**Fyen: *runs back and snatches script from Kiseki* It _never_ said '_that idiot commoner'_, chibi king. Imma talk myself now. u_u**

**Kiseki: NANI? I'm not a chibi king! I'm a huge king! I'll be the king of the WO-**

**Fyen: I have not lied about getting sick last time but when I got better, I got too lazy to continue writing and there was a small case of writer's block and procrastinating over the last months so I think you get my excuse right? And no, TadAmuFan, I did not die, 'cause I'll keep living to finish this story! 8D Anyways, since school started AGAIN, you all pretty much know that I'll keep updating slow like this or maybe even SLOWER but I'll try not to do that again but seriously, no promises about that! Plus, I think I might've put SOME cheesiness in here so please bare with that and... uh, talk to you guys later. u_u**

**Kiseki: How unusually formal...**

* * *

_Rumble, rumble, rumble... _Amu sighed as she peered out the slidedoor of her own bedroom at the Hotori's house as lightning and thunder cracked the dark skies and clouds outside. Raindrops slid down the window like a hundred small streams making their way into a waterfall. It was as if huge flashlights were being flicked on and off everywhere outside as droplets of water continued pattering into puddles on the grounds of Earth. She finally looked away closing her eyes for a brief moment since the lightning outside seemed to hurt her golden eyes a bit just by looking at it.

She opened her eyes slowly again looking at her ring that she was actually wearing today. She had gone to school today but forgot to take the ring off after she came home. Tadase on the other hand didn't come home right away though. He told her he wanted to stay at the university to study for a huge important exam coming up for him with his friends there. And right after Amu had reached the house, it had started to pour.

'_Great, Tadase doesn't have an umbrella with him or anything...' _Gosh, what is she worried about? He does have his own car there after all if he was going to come home. He wouldn't get soaking wet anyways. But... maybe she should call him right now, tell him he should just stay at his dorm room for tonight and assure him she would be alright being at home alone anyways. Well, this is true, she is legally an adult after all. Amu's already "married" for Pete's sake! But Tadase had actually promised Amu that morning he'd come back after studying everyday for however long it takes Amu to get over her fear of her nightmares. But not like the pinkette asked him to or anything. The blonde had insisted on it no matter how much Amu argued that he didn't have to.

Amu scrunched her eyebrows together just thinking about it. '_Why does he always have to be so dang nice all the time? He's too kind... it's annoying,' _Amu thought quietly. Sigh. She should as well be studying right now as well. She also had an exam coming up soon and it was her final one at that. Although most of it would be of mathematic stuff so she'd be good at figuring out fabric measurements when designing clothes, she never could make herself take it seriously until the time actually came. Honestly, none of this stuff seemed all that hard to Amu. The only thing that frustrated her about college was the amount of homework she always got. Though she shouldn't even complain having seen how much Tadase always had to do everyday.

_-Hours later-_

_Click. _The sound of a key being inserted into the front door sounded to be opened as Amu finished making a certain soup with much effort put into it from looking at a recipe book. '_Ah, he's finally here!' _Amu thought a little lighthearted as she sat down at the dining table just waiting for Tadase expectantly so he could try her soup as well.

When Tadase walked in, he headed straight for his room first. Amu spotted him and stopped him. "Eh? Tadase-kun, how did you get so soaking wet?" she asked, noticing Tadase's damp-looking school uniform. '_And I told him he didn't have to come...' _**[A/N: I do not know for sure if Japanese college requires uniforms or not so I'm just assuming this...]**

"Oh... Ah, I had my car parked pretty far away from the exit of the school so running in the rain was inevitable, eheheh...**.** Don't worry about it, I'll just go change quickly." he said assuring her.

"Who said I was gonna worry about it?" the pink-haired girl muttered under her breath as Tadase headed into his room to change.

After Tadase had changed into a set of at-home clothes, he and Amu sat down and ate soup for dinner. It was another, peaceful and quiet dinner together. But they had both been gradually getting used to each other and exchanged more and more words with each other everyday and time they came into contact at home and at school as well.

Tadase decided Amu's cooking was actually pretty good and not as bad as Amu had insisted it to be. After they had both finished dinner and cleaned up, Tadase told Amu he was going to study some more in his bedroom.

Amu sighed. Did he really have to take studying that far? Couldn't he at least allow himself some free time? '_Whatever, that's his problem if he's obsessed like that,' _Amu decided and headed into her room to read while rain was still gushing from the clouds outside.

...

Amu realized as she glanced up at the clock that an hour had passed already. And the rain had still not ceased yet. Utterly bored now, she got up and walked out of her room. She stopped when she was in front of Tadase's bedroom door and somehow had the urge to knock to see if he was still studying. '_Wouldn't hurt anyways, I'll just say I was done studying or bored or something like that' _she thought briefly as she knocked Tadase's door a few times. _'...No answer...' _"Tadase-kun?" she said aloud. "Tadase-kun, you in there?" '_Strange...'_

Instinctively, Amu just opened the door and pushed in, seeing Tadase laying on his bed, looking like he had fallen asleep but without the covers on him. Amu scrunched her eyebrows together and stared hard at his back frowning, '_So he wasn't as obsessive with studying as I thought he was. What a facade.'_

"Hm?" Amu looked over at his books, papers and pencils laying around on his desk in the bedroom. "Wow, why so messy? Amu wondered aloud. Amu didn't think Tadase seemed like the type to keep things so unorganized. She walked over peeping at his studies and sighed then turned around to look at Tadase. "What's so good about being a teacher anyways?" she muttered.

_"Wait...," _Amu noticed something about Tadase's way of sleeping. '_Is he... shivering? Could it be...?' _Amu thought horrified at her realization and looking at his damp school uniform that he left on a chair to dry. She walked over to Tadase and rested the back of her hand on top of Tadase's forehead, softly gasping. Great, just what she was afraid of. Tadase had a fever and was burning up from being in the rain for even just a bit.

Suddenly, Amu had the panicking feeling. She ruffled her own hair with her own hand while looking around thinking about what to do now that Tadase's suffering from a fever. She lightly helped shift Tadase's body in a more comfortable sleeping position and pulled the covers over him while his face continued to get redder and redder. Amu then hurriedly went into the bathroom, opening all the cupboards above the sink, desperately looking for medicine suited to treat a fever.

Once Amu finally found the right medicine bottle, she prepared a cool wet cloth for Tadase and softly placed it on his forehead. The pink-haired woman pulled a chair next to Tadase's bed as she sat down with the medicine tablet in hand and a glass full of water in the other. '_His breathing seems really heavy...,' _she noticed as she watched Tadase sleep with a slightly pained look. It's surprising how in such a short amount of time, he could become like this. _'Wait... he can't take his medicine if he's still sleeping like this!' _Amu finally realized. '_Um... maybe he'll just automatically swallow it if I just shove it gently into his mouth- WAIT, no! He could choke then! But I shouldn't wake him up either... Then what do I do?' _the strickened woman thought foolishly to herself.

_Cough. Cough, cough, cough. _Amu looked up from the midst of her thoughts to see Tadase suddenly having a coughing fit. "T-Tadase-kun? Are you awake now?"

His eyes fluttered open but only halfway to the sound of Amu's voice. Tadase still felt very weak. "I'm sorry...," he rasped while laying his head on its side and looking at Amu with dull-looking eyes that were usually bright and calm.

"Huh? Oh! N-No, you don't need to apologize, but you shouldn't be talking right now so..."

But Tadase continued to speak, "Grandmother... I'm-" _Cough._ "sorry...**.**"

There was then a huge gap of silence. "G-Grandmother?" '_What? Did he just call me 'Grandmother?' He thinks I'm his grandmother? I do NOT look that old!' _"Uh, Tadese-kun, I'm actuall-!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't... take good care of you when you fell ill. I couldn't help you in anyway... or become someone strong before you left... Not even Betty stayed with me long... Forgive me for being weak..." the ill blonde continued to rasp while having a distant look in his eyes, still unbeknownst that whoever that was sitting before him was in fact his wife instead and not his grandma.

Amu had grown silent as Tadase spoke. '_Who's Betty though?' _She thought of what to say now and started speaking softly to him now, "I know... but you if you keep speaking with a voice like that, your throat'll get worse. Please sit up to take your medicine and drink your water."

"But-"

"Shh, don't talk! I don't think you're weak, Tadase-kun. You're helpful and strong in a unique way, there's no need to apologize or anything. So please take your medicine right now so I can rest at peace and not worry about you anymore," Amu said calmly and slowly, not even really fully knowing what she's saying herself and pretty much, unintentionally speaking as Tadase's grandmother. And much to her surprise, Tadase kept quiet as she helped him up to take his medicine, taking off the wet cloth off of his forehead at the same time.

Once Amu made sure Tadase was comfortable in bed and asleep again with a new cold wet cloth, she got up about to go into her own bedroom once realizing that it was already night. Before walking out Tadase's bedroom, she glanced towards Tadase's way, wondering why he felt he needed to be forgiven by his grandmother and who this 'Betty' was.

...

The next morning, Tadase awoke with his head still feeling a little light but feeling much better than before. He ruffled his hair before throwing off the covers, about to step out to his left when he was suddenly surprised by a sight. He looked at a clump of pink hair resting on the edge of his bed in a moment of confusion before realizing it was Amu. In the end, Amu had come back to Tadase's room with her own blanket, intending to keep watch of him in case his fever worsens overnight while sleeping in a chair next to his bed with her head rested on her arms on the edge of the bed.

However, this made Tadase let a small smile show on his face as he softly patted Amu's head with a hand. Who'd have thought Amu would be willing to go this far for someone she sees as a fake husband? Amu suddenly shifted her body and blinked open her eyes, realizing it was morning again already. She jerked her head up all the way when she realized Tadase was also awake now.

"Tadase-kun!"

"Good morning, Amu-chan. And my, you sure know how to be a good wife when your husband's ill," he teased her playfully while smiling his princely smile.

"Hey! I'm not really being your w-wife! I was just r-repaying you for not leaving me alone, and you looked really horrible yesterday so of course, I'd have to help you, that's all!" Amu argued, a faint pink blush on her cheeks. She was also a bit embarrassed for being caught sleeping right next to Tadase's bed like that.

Tadase laughed lightly at her reply then softened his expression, "Thank you, Amu-chan."

"Huh? Oh... Ah! I-It was no big deal!" she quickly said while turning her head away, hiding her red face. '_His smiles! His smiles are too much, it's like a blinding white light!' _"Um... Oh my gosh, don't we have classes today?" the pinkette suddenly exclaimed, standing straight up. "Man, we'll be so late-"

"Oh you don't have to worry about that, it should be Saturday today, right?"

Amu was caught speechless now. "...Whatever. But you still shouldn't talk so much today, your throat still sounds like it needs some more recovering so keep taking your medicine, ok?"

"Medicine?" Tadase repeated, confused but then saw the medicine on his bedside table. '_Wait... Didn't I take that medicine in a dream?'_ he realized, remembering a dream about his grandmother giving him medicine and telling him reassuring things.

"Oh yeah... you thought I was your grandmother when I tried to make you take it," Amu stated rather bluntly but her mind was still filled with thoughts about it.

"Oh... Sorry about that. And uh... did I say anything else... weird to you?"

Amu decided that it might stress him if she were to tell him about the whole conversation they had when Tadase was practically hallucinating. So it'd be best to let him relax and rest as much as possible for now than to have anything bothering him on his mind. "Uh, besides mistaking me as your grandmother, no, not at all!" Amu replied with an attempted smile. Tadase seemed to have sighed in relief.

"Well, now that you're feeling a little better, it's really showing the medicine has great effect on you and so has your rest. So... you should stay in bed this whole day too and if you're hungry I'll cook you something, okay?" Amu insisted with seriousness clear in her eyes now.

The blonde man obviously prepared to argue again but was forced to lay back down by the pink-haired woman, who obviously was trying very hard to be a good wife even if she kept saying and thinking that she wasn't really Tadase's wife. And soon after Amu left the room, Tadase hadn't realized how tired he still was and fell into another slumber almost immediately.

As _Mrs. _Hotori prepared to cook some appropriate food that both she and Tadase could and should eat while Tadase had some more rest, the home phone had started ringing almost abruptly. As abruptly as any other phone ring could be, reallly. Amu answered the phone quickly only to find that it was her mother calling. The talk was actually short and nothing really that serious was discussed between them. It was rather a visiting call from her family. But right after the call ended, Amu went silent. Silently panicking on the inside. '_M-Mama and... Papa are coming over to visit... tomorrow?'_

**

* * *

**

**Fyen: Crappy. Just... crappy.**

**Kiseki: *reading script again* _Hi all, bye all, and I hope you didn't bawl! _What in tarnation?**

**Fyen: I didn't write that one... And I thought royalty doesn't use the word 'tarnation.' o.O**

**Kiseki: Shut up!**

**Fyen: AHAH! Royalty doesn't tell people to shut up either! They say "SILENCE!"**

**Kiseki: SDKGJLDFJHREOIT!**

**Fyen: o.o**


End file.
